The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of 572 islands at the intersection of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Its 8 sq mile of territory is inhabited by 380,000 residents. Port Blair, the capital, is connected to Chennai by air.

The scene is a sidewalk just beyond the rather overdone Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, and the camera in question is less instrument, more living fossil — built by the Carl Zeiss company in 1860, it is nearly three times as old as independent India.